Ronne Froman, San Diego's new chief operating officer, dispelled any notion yesterday that she would play good cop to Mayor-elect Jerry Sanders' bad cop as the two prepare to take over leadership of a city mired in fiscal crisis.

RONI GALGANO / Union-Tribune

Mayor-elect Jerry Sanders and Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins shared a laugh yesterday at a brief transition meeting to plan his move into the Mayor's Office. Sanders, the city's first "strong mayor," expects to chair his first City Council meeting Dec. 5.

Froman had this message for employees who were warned this week by Sanders to expect a four-year salary freeze: "If there are people that want pay raises, then they can find a job someplace else. That's what they should do."

Yesterday was a day of firsts for Sanders and Froman.

Sanders, the city's former police chief, met with Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins at City Hall to plan a move into the Mayor's Office, and Froman conducted her first round of media interviews since Sanders outlined her role in his administration in June.

Froman, who has held top management positions in the military, the public school system and the nonprofit community, acknowledged that she has no background in municipal finance.

Career path

Ronne Froman, 58, is San Diego's new chief operating officer, the top aide to Mayor-elect Jerry Sanders. She worked as:

Chief executive officer for the San Diego/Imperial Counties chapter of the American Red Cross from 2003 to 2005, managing an $11 million budget.

Chief of business operations for San Diego City Schools from 2001 to 2003, managing a $1 billion budget.

Director of ashore readiness for the chief of naval operations from 2000 to 2001, planning a $7 billion budget.

Commander of Navy Region Southwest from 1997 to 2000, managing a $400 million budget.

"My talent lies in putting teams together and helping those teams work," she said.

Froman, a retired Navy rear admiral, resigned as chief executive officer of the local Red Cross chapter Wednesday. In the waning days of the mayoral campaign, her silence in the face of multiple media interview requests became a news story because of her singular significance in a Sanders administration.

Froman said she obtained a legal opinion before the July 26 primary election from Red Cross lawyers in Washington, D.C., that she needed to stay clear of political activity unless it was clearly in a "personal capacity."

Granting media interviews under those terms would have left her walking "a very fine line," she said.

Though Froman didn't grant interview requests during the campaign, she appeared with Sanders at fundraising events and sat on a Sanders transition committee.

The importance of Froman's role in city decision-making was evident yesterday in an e-mail message she sent to more than a dozen members of that committee. Sanders formed the panel in August, with Froman heading it, and said it would exist for "the next four months" until he took office in early December.

RONI GALGANO / Union-Tribune

"My talent lies in putting teams together and helping those teams work," said Ronne Froman, San Diego's new chief operating officer.

In her e-mail message, Froman told committee members they would no longer meet regularly because they had completed a timeline for Sanders' first 90 days in office.

Sanders and Atkins, who has served as acting mayor since Dick Murphy left office in July, are striving for a seamless transition over that period.

"I think we're on the same page," Atkins said at a news conference with Sanders after their meeting. "We want to move the city forward."

Sanders, who expects to chair his first City Council meeting Dec. 5, joked that he would tattoo public meeting guidelines from Robert's Rules of Order on his forearm.

In January, Sanders will be removed from the council and become the city's first "strong mayor," assuming the city manager's executive powers over hiring and firing city personnel and drafting the annual budget.

City Manager Lamont Ewell has indicated that he will step down when that happens. He earns $233,000 a year as the person running the city's daily operations. The mayor earns $100,000 annually.

Froman said she has not discussed her salary with Sanders. She and others are reviewing city workers' compensation packages and expect to devise a new set of salary guidelines for top managers in coming weeks.

Froman said she is ready to make Sanders' campaign pledges a reality, but also is prepared to tell him when they can't be fulfilled.

"I've been keeping lists of all the things that Jerry's said and promises that are made .... and by golly, we'll fulfill those or we'll explain why we can't," she said. "My role is to implement, but my role is also to go in and tell him when he has spinach between his teeth."

Sanders' campaign promises include laying off 100 top city managers and 50 middle managers. He has also proposed selling off city land and borrowing money to pay down a pension deficit of at least $1.4 billion.

He has flatly ruled out tax increases to help San Diego out of its current fiscal woes.

Sanders' proposals are "what the CEO has laid out and wants to do, and we'll take a very hard look at that," Froman said. "We've got to do what's the right thing for the city and what makes the most sense."

She said the city "is stuck in peanut butter and we need to unstuck it."

Froman's final staff meeting at the Red Cross yesterday was an emotional one. She said she left with flowers, a bottle of scotch and a greater understanding of what could be accomplished in difficult times.

"I saw this morning what kind of a team that we had built at the Red Cross," she said. "It was a very caring, very open, very proud group of people, and that's what I would see happening at the city.

"It's going to be hard. There's going to be some tough times. There's going to be some hurt feelings."